


Just a little girl

by IaMcHrIsSi



Series: Family [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, She shouldn't have touched that 084, Skye's a child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-25 11:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1647692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye touches an 084 and gets turned into a child. Post season finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm writing again...  
> This is a kind of sequel to my other story Snippets, which is basically how I imagine Skye's back story. You don't have to read that one first, if you do, just exchange the “real name” I gave Skye with the canon “real name” Mary Sue Poots.

Skye really shouldn't have stayed in there alone, was Melinda May's first thought when she saw a flash of red light. She dropped the file she had been examining and ran back into the office she had seen the younger woman in last.

It was a routine mission, breaking into the headquarter of a small company they suspected to work with Hydra and stealing valuable intel on Hydra's next move. The security was near non-existent, which was why Coulson had decided to send only May and Skye. It was not as if they had much more agents, Fitz was still in coma, Simmons was no use in the field and while Trip could have come with them, May felt better knowing he was back at the base, if only to make sure Simmons left Fitz room every now and then. Apart from Skye the other specialist seemed to be the only one to really get through to their biochemist.

All those things didn't matter though when May raced to look what had happened with Skye. She couldn't quite shake the pictures her mind showed her, pictures of what had happened the last time Skye had been alone on hostile territory... at least there hadn't been any shots fired. That she would have heard.

Finally she reached the room. Skye had stayed because this was where the computer with the biggest encryption was. On the first look through the room May noticed that the computer had been decrypted and the files were being copied on a hard drive, that there was no sign of a struggle or forced entry anywhere... and that there was a child on the floor. Why was there a child on the floor?  
The child was dressed in Skye's jeans, Skye's blue shirt and the black leather jacket Skye had picked up when she had been banned from the bus by Victoria Hand, all of which was much to large for the little girl wearing them now. May estimated her age to be around four. Carefully she bend down, pushed away the long dark hair of the girl and searched for a pulse. The pulse was strong, so obviously the girl was only sleeping. Good.

Standing up again, May searched for anything that would tell a different story than the one her mind had already created, but the only thing out of ordinary was a thing about the size of a paperback that seemed to be made out of metal. It had been lying on the desk when they had first found this room, May remembered. Now it had fallen to the floor, lying next to the child. Now that she looked at it more closely, it kind of resembled an 084 she had picked up for SHIELD sometime early in her career. Great. 

Suddenly the girl opened her eyes. “Mommy?”, she asked quietly. May froze. “I'm tired”, the girl said and May won back her calm enough to answer “Go back to sleep then, honey.”.

xxx

“The DNA test is very clear. This is Skye.” Simmons said tiredly. It was five in the morning and nobody but the little girl now confirmed as Skye had had any sleep since May had come back to the base at 11 pm.

“I don't know what happened, but Skye seems to be physically four, and my guess is that she will have mentally that age as well. She probably touched the 084, what explains the flash of light you've seen, Agent May, and was somehow transformed to this state by it. I do not know how to reverse it, but right now I'm way to tired to archive anything. I will continue my research in the morning.” Simmons finished her report. 

There was a heavy silence in the room. What were they supposed to do with a four year old Skye? Where was she supposed to sleep? What would she want to eat? How long would it take to reverse the process?

Finally, Phil spoke up. “I can take her for tonight. She should not be alone when she wakes up.” While he was saying that, May was already shaking her head. “I don't think that's a good idea. She will not know where she is, and you are a stranger to her. She has seen me at least once, and generally a woman is seen as less of a threat than a man. I'll take her.” She said.

Nobody argued, as all were happy to be able to go to bed. Before May fell asleep, she looked at the young, innocent face next to her. How were they supposed to deal with a child?


	2. Chapter 2

Melinda woke up to the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. She jumped into a defensive stance before really knowing what was going on. For a moment, she was confused by the picture she found: A little girl standing in front of her book shelves, wearing one of her old T-shirts and looking at her with fear in her eyes. On the floor next to the girl was a book that had obviously fallen from the shelf. Melinda blinked, and then the last night came rushing back to her and she remembered. Skye. She looks at the clock on her desk. 7 am. Of course. Skye had been the only one to actually get sleep this night. Melinda squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, but then decided that going back to sleep was not an option get. She just couldn't let a mini-Skye run around here unsupervised.

“Good Morning.” She greeted the girl. Skye looked up to her with big brown eyes and seemed to become even smaller.

“I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be bad. It just fell!” She said. “I didn't wanna wake you. I'm sorry!” The girl seemed positively scared, and belatedly Melinda realized that she was still in fighting stance. She relaxed and sat down on her bed. “It's okay, Skye. No harm done.”

Skye looked at her curiously then. “I'm Mary, not Skye. Skye is a prettier name though. Can I be Skye?” Melinda stared at the little girl for a moment. Of course, it made sense. The foster system didn't do names as unusual as “Skye”, and it wasn't a that unthinkable that Skye had chosen her own name when she had erased her identity.

“Sure.” She answered, not completely sure that was a good idea, but, well, it was way to early for this discussion. “Cool!” Skye (Mary?) squealed. Then she looked at Melinda again. “I'm hungry.”

xxx

Breakfast proofed to be easy. They had some cereals here, mostly because Simmons loved them, and soon Skye was happily eating while Melinda just looked at the little girl. Skye still wore her old T-shirt. She would need clothes. And toys. And probably a ton of other things. Melinda resisted the urge to call her mother. It was only a little girl, nothing they wouldn't manage.

She heard Phil before she saw him. It was still early, only half past seven, but she would have been surprised if he had slept much longer. He was to much like her in this, the training still sitting too deep to really allow any of them sleep in.

“Good Morning.” She greeted him. He smiled at her, and then at Skye, who was looking up now. He was wearing a suit, of course. Skye seemed confused. “Do I have to leave already? I don't wanna go back to the nuns. Where am I?” She asked, turning towards Melinda.

Phil looked at Skye, then at Melinda, who shrugged, and then at Skye again. “You don't have to leave, don't worry.” Skye smiled shyly.

“Good. Why don't you eat? Aren't you hungry, Mommy?” She asked. Melinda was shocked, because when did she become the little girls “Mommy”? Her shock must have shown, because Skye shrugged and said: “If I don't have to leave, aren't you my new mommy and daddy then?”

Melinda looked at Phil. He looked as surprised as she herself must have looked, but then he started to smile. Of course. She looked at Skye and sighed. Simmons better be quick, she thought.

xxx

Later, when they found some cartoons for Skye to watch, Melinda and Phil finally got to talk.

“Sleeping in my room worked okay. Until Simmons figures out what to do we can continue this arrangement.” Melinda said.

“Seems sensible.” Phil answered distractedly, his focus not on her but on the little girl watching TV. Melinda had to smile. Phil had looked at Skye as his kind of daughter before, and her calling him “daddy” had to feel really good for him. She wasn't sure how she thought about being Skye's “mommy”, but she figured that it was not going to take to long before Simmons figured out a way to make Skye adult again, so she wouldn't have to get used to it.

“Also, turns out her real name is Mary. She said so this morning when I called her Skye. She likes the name Skye better, though, so when she asked I told her it's okay that her new name is Skye. Not sure about that, but I was really tired.”

“Well, if she reacts to being called Skye it would make everything much less confusing. I'm not sure everybody would remember to call her Mary.” Phil said.

“We'll have to buy her clothes. She can't keep running around in my old T-shirt.” Melinda already dreaded that trip. She had never liked shopping for clothes, and somehow she could not imagine it being any easier with a four year old.

“I can go with her.” Phil said, but Melinda was already shaking her head. “If you go, you're going to come back with a mountain of stuff we do not need because you won't be able to say no that little girl over there. I think it's best if I go. She's already gotten a bit used to me.” Internally, she cursed. She did not want to go shopping with the girl, but there was no other real option safe for Simmons, and she wanted the other woman working on how to get Skye normal again.

“Morning.” Trip said sleepily as he grabbed a coffee. 

“Morning.” Melinda and Phil replied at the same time. Skye looked up from her cartoon long enough to say “Hi” and then turned back to the TV. Trip stared at her, blinked twice and then shook his head. “So it wasn't a weird dream.” He mumbled. Phil smiled, while Melinda just smirked. “She grew up in the system, so she thinks we are her new foster parents. We decided to leave it at that for the moment.”

Trip looked at them. “It's way to early for this weirdness.” He said after a moment. 

Well, he's not wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

The mall was rather small and due to the fact that it was a Monday morning quite empty. Melinda was not sure how she felt about this. On the positive side, the less people were there the less likely it was that she would lose sight of Skye. On the other hand they were more likely to be remembered when there were next to no other costumers. And being remembered was not good. Melinda had been an agent for long enough to know that.

It couldn't be helped, however, and so Melinda grabbed Skye's hand and went for the childrens clothing store with determination. The quicker they got through this, the better. For a moment she had thought of going into the shoe store first, because Skye was literally barefoot, but then again the little girl was currently wearing Jemma's smallest T-shirt (which still went to Skye's knees) and a pair of Melinda's shorts. Skye looked like she lived under a bridge, and the first step to changing that would have to be new clothes.

Skye herself didn't say anything. She had been quiet since she had watched the cartoons, Melinda realized. A quick look told her that the girl was smiling though, so she assumed that she was probably alright. And if not, Phil would have to deal with it. He was better with emotions anyway, and he knew Skye way better than her.

“What kind of clothes do you like?” Melinda asked the little girl. She figured that if they were going to buy Skye clothes, they might as well buy some she liked.

Skye looked up to her shyly. Melinda was pretty sure she had never seen Skye look shyly at anyone. “I like colors. Red and blue and green and yellow.”

“Okay.” Of course little Skye liked colors. “How about those trousers over there? Aren't they a pretty shade of blue?” She said, pointing to a pair of jeans. Skye nodded.

xxx

As it turned out, Skye hated pink. She loved purple though. Melinda simply decided to go along with it, but she did make a mental note to introduce her to Barton when (if) she ever met him again. When they left the store, Melinda was carrying bags that contained five pairs of jeans, three dresses, two skirts, several t-shirts and a few warmer sweaters as well as underwear and pajamas while Skye was dancing around in her purple dress. It was a rather cute sight, the little girl beamed and acted with no worry or suspicion. Of course, that meant Melinda had to be extra cautious. Usually she could count on Skye to at least look around herself every now and then, but this little girl in front of her didn't know that there was evil in the world. Looking at her, Melinda found herself wanting to keep it that way. Which was ridiculous. Simmons would find a way to fix things and then Skye would be her normal self again soon. They would just make sure little Skye didn't got into any trouble until then.

The next stop was the shoe store. They got a weird look here, because Skye was barefoot and really, what mother lets her daughter leave the house barefoot? Melinda had expected this. She actually had expected to get the look in the clothing store, because Skye had looked really weird coming in there, but the cashier had been to busy talking to her boyfriend over the phone to really spare them more than one look.

Once that was done and Skye finally looked like a normal, respectable child, Melinda saw Skye looking longingly at ice cream parlor and decided that they deserved a bit ice cream. Skye gave her a big smile when she suggested it, and Melinda could not help but smile a bit, too.

Eating their ice cream (chocolate and lemon for Skye, vanilla for Melinda) Melinda asked the little girl about what she liked. The answer surprised her.

“I like reading. I'm not very good, but I wanna learn. Mommy, well, my mommy before you, always read to me before I went to sleep and I wanted to be able to do that too, so I took the books and tried. It's hard, but I like it.” 

A four year old girl that was teaching herself to read. Simmons will love it, Melinda thought. It might even be enough to get the scientist out of Fitz' room. Simmons didn't like to leave her partners side and as a result had even started to work in the room. It wasn't healthy and everyone knew it, but they hadn't been able to do something against it yet.

“Are you sad, mommy? You look sad.” Skye's voice broke through her thoughts. The little girl looked up at her worriedly, a bit of chocolate ice cream on her nose. Melinda shook her head. “Just thinking.” She said, cleaning Skye's face with a napkin. No need to explain that one to her just yet. Skye obviously wasn't convinced, but dropped the subject.

xxx

When they got back to the base, Skye insisted on showing Phil and Trip all her knew clothes. It became a lengthy show, with Phil sneaking in a camera and taking pictures and Trip complimenting Skye on nearly every new piece of clothing. Skye was glowing with pride and happiness, while Melinda faded into the background, watching and smiling.


	4. Chapter 4

When it was time for dinner, Phil send Trip to get Simmons. He was the only one who stood a chance of getting the scientist to leave her partners side. Melinda cooked, while Phil and Skye set the table. Skye was chatting the whole time, and Phil smiled and nodded along. They really look like father and daughter, Melinda thought.

When Simmons came, looking pale and tired, Skye looked up. “Are you okay?” She asked Simmons. The scientist forced a smile and said yes. “You don't look okay. You look sad. Are you sad? What's your name, anyway?” The child asked. It was kind of interesting, Melinda thought, that when Skye had been with her, she had been very quiet, but now she was so chatty. Especially considering that Skye obviously didn't recognize Simmons. 

Dinner was a relaxed, quiet affair. Skye told the others about the day at the mall, and Trip and Phil really made an effort to include the little girl in their talking. Melinda was contend with watching everyone and Simmons just stared at her food, not really eating anything. Trip and Phil didn't seem to notice, but Melinda saw Skye looking at Simmons worriedly more than once. Children see far more than we give them credit for, Melinda thought, even though in this case, it was blatantly obvious that Simmons wasn't okay.

Maybe staying with Skye would make Simmons feel better. Skye, even the little Skye they had now, had an uncanny talent for making people feel better. She looked at the scientist. “Hey, what do you think, would you like to maybe read a story to Skye while we clean up here after dinner? She told me she loves books, taught herself to read.” She asked Simmons quietly. Just like she hoped, the scientist looked up interestedly. “She taught herself to read?” Simmons asked. “That's what she told me.” Melinda smiled. Getting out of Fitz' bunk would help Simmons, she was sure of it.

xxx

Melinda, Phil and Trip stood in the kitchen. They had long finished cleaning up, but did not want to interrupt Simmons and Skye. The two girls had curled up on the couch and were discussing one of the children's books Melinda had bought in the mall. For the first time in weeks, there was passion in Simmons voice instead of the passiveness they had almost gotten used to.

“She's good for Simmons.” Phil said quietly. “Definitively.” Trip agreed. Melinda just nodded and continued watching. “Even though that's obviously a fact, I hope Simmons finds a way to fix this soon. We need adult Skye.” She said. The men nodded, a bit reluctantly, it seemed to Melinda. They like little Skye, she realized. She shrugged. She wouldn't say she disliked the little girl, but she simply didn't know what to do with a child and they did need their hacker back.

xxx

Soon it was time for Skye to go to bed. Melinda watched as the little girl brushed her teeth and changed into the new pajamas they had bought. When the girl finally lay in bed, Phil came in to say good night. He kissed Skye on the forehead and was rewarded with a beaming grin. Suddenly Melinda was uncomfortable. Skye saw Phil as her new daddy and her as her new mommy. Would she expect Melinda to kiss her forehead too? What did she expect anyway? Phil acted so naturally with her, as though he really was her father. He seemed to know exactly what to do. But Melinda? Melinda didn't know anything. She said good night to the girl, faking a smile and then got her phone and went over to Skye's room. 

She didn't go into Skye's room often, especially not without Skye inviting her, but she knew that nobody would be here tonight and she really wanted to be alone when she called her mother.

Her mother picked up almost immediately. “Melinda, are you okay?”

“I'm fine mom, thanks for asking. What about you?” She asked. It was something of ritual for them, to always check that the other was uninjured and not in immediate danger first. Probably that was only normal given both their line of work.

“I am retired, dear, and yes, I'm perfectly healthy and happy.” Melinda smiled almost against her will. Her mother was the only one who got away with calling her dear.

“Mom, I, well, we kind of have a problem.” She said. “What kind of problem?” Her mother asked. “The kind you only get when you work for SHIELD. Our hacker has been turned into a four-year-old version of herself.” Her mother snorted. “You're right, that seems to be a very SHIELD-like problem. How did it happen?” Melinda closed her eyes. “We're not really sure. She seems to have touched an 084 and well... yeah.” “I understand. But why do you call me about it? I can't help with this kind of things, and you know that.” Melinda took a deep breath and said: “Because Skye, that's her name, grew up in foster care. When she woke up she assumed that Phil and I are her new foster parents and... Phil loves it. He thought of the girl as his daughter before this, so it's easy for him.” “But not for you.” Her mother guessed. “No. I... I like Skye, she's a nice girl and will make a good agent one day, but I do not know how to deal with a child. Especially if the child calls me mommy.” Melinda said.

“Calm down, dear.” Her mother said. “If she calls you mommy, you're definitively doing something right. She will tell you if you're not. Children can be surprisingly vocal about such things. At very least, she will go to Phil if there is a problem. He will tell you. Believe me, my daughter, you will do well. Don't worry to much.”


End file.
